


not again, simon!

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Judge Louis, M/M, a bit at least, harry and louis have been dating for 82394724 years, idk what tags to put, x factor - Freeform, yikes i hope i'll finish this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 19:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15419523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Louis is a judge on the X Factor. A new boy group is formed. Two of the members grab Louis' attention. Harry and Louis decide to help.





	not again, simon!

When Louis decided he was gonna be a judge on the X Factor, he didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. It wasn’t entirely his decision, sure- it had taken angry emails from Simon Cowell, not so subtle threats hinting at the fragility of his or Harry’s careers, easily destroyable if a major company decided they were no longer needed.

But still. What he wanted was a fair season, possible new friendships, and to make people whose goals were not much different from his own a couple years ago happy. Turns out, nothing ever goes as planned. Oh well. Who would’ve known.

Because now, there was a group, a couple of guys that auditioned as solo artists but were thrown together as a mutual decision made by the judges. Sounds familiar, huh?

Of course, those boys had earned Louis’s sympathy from the very first moments, not only because they were incredibly talented and nice lads, also because somehow, the One Direction boys bonded by watching them on the X Factor.

Their groupchat from the ‘old days’, as Niall called it, even though Louis repeatedly told him off for it because they weren’t fucking _grandpas_ yet, was more active than ever before. Even Zayn watched the show and threw in a comment or two on how much Blue Spark, the name the group had chosen, reminded him of themselves.

The thing was, Louis wasn’t blind. And he enjoyed similarities, yes, discussing them with the others was fun, being reminded of 2010 and how it all started, always accompanied with a slight wave of nostalgia.

But at some point, he couldn’t help but start to notice something that made his stomach twist nervously. Because two of those guys in the band, well, got along _mysteriously_ well. James and Ollie, was what they were called. 17 and 18 years old, and so, so hopeful and ambitious that it made Louis want to shove Simon out of his chair and manage the whole thing by himself from now.

“You might just be imagining things, Lou”, Harry offered one day when Louis brought his suspicion up over dinner. “Maybe it’s because you see so much of yourself and the band in them, you start believing that there must be something going on between two members.”

Louis narrowed his eyes. “Are you calling me delusional, Harold?” He brought his palms together as if he were about to make a very important statement. “Is this, perhaps, the biggest load of bullshit you’ve ever heard?” Harry, having caught on Louis’ joke, laughed, shaking his head. “You’re an anti-Jollie, I knew it.”, Louis said, feigning disappointment.

Harry nodded with the best serious face he could muster. “They’re straight, Louis, why can’t you stop forcing a sexuality on them?” Louis grinned. “Straight just like us, right?”, he asked, already leaning over the table, eyes focused on nothing but Harry’s lips.

The rest of the night, his mind was occupied with other things.

But it really wasn’t something to joke about anymore when Louis decided to watch James and Ollie as closely as possible to find out if he was imagining things after all. Because if that wasn’t the case, then god, he didn’t know how he would stop those two young boys with heads full of dreams from taking the exact same route that he and Harry had had to go.

He was already feeling the twist of guilt, of “what if I _hadn’t_ voted to let them be in a band together, they could’ve found each other and still been able to have normal lives, fuck, _fuck_ ”, and yeah. Maybe he should save the dramatics for when he’s actually gotten to a result.

So, as the season progressed and they were at the Judges Houses, Louis hung around there for more time than was probably normal, claiming the memory of his own time there as the only significant reason. He befriended all of Blue Spark, despite the slight age difference, and quickly noticed that none of them seemed to know that him and Harry were dating. _Good job, Modest_ , he thought.

So now the mission was to find out, as subtly as possible. God, suddenly Louis knew what the Larry shippers must have felt like in the early days. No proof, just gut feeling to guide him. But he’d get there. He would. Meanwhile, he would make sure that none of the other judges, especially not Simon, caught on.

The first thing that had caused him to start getting suspicious at all, was the constant hugging. And by constant, he meant they were hugging every second minute, if not more. When Louis saw Ollie snuggling into James’ neck and the other one smiling and combing through Ollie’s hair while sitting together watching tv, he knew he was onto something.

Sam, a third guy from Blue Spark, who was sitting next to the two, pouted. “You two are so affectionate, I’m feeling left out.”

James laughed, patting Sam’s hair. “We promise we love you, Sammy”, Ollie muttered, face smudged in between James’ neck and the couch. “Not sure you want to be included in everything we do, though”, James said, sending Ollie into a coughing-laughing fit while Sam and his confused “What do you mean?” was drowned, but surely would be noticeable on the omnipresent cameras, which had of course been there to film the whole scene.

Louis quietly backed out of the room, torn between adoring the two, and being scared out of his mind for their well-being.

There were _thousands_ of One Direction fans watching this season, thanks to him. Half of them, if not more, were well familiar with the concept of noticing real love being presented right in front of their eyes. And they would see it, they would, already having proclaimed Blue Spark the next big boyband and One Direction’s symbolic little brother. He couldn’t exactly tell them all please not to focus on Ollie and James too much without sounding super suspicious.

Fucking _shit._

With shaking hands, Louis pulled out his phone, having Harry on speed-dial. The “Hello, love” from the other line, his favourite sound in the whole world, calmed Louis’ nerves the smallest bit. He let out a shaky breath.

“You okay?”, Harry asked, and it was almost like Louis could hear him scrunching his eyebrows together in question. “Hi baby, yes, I’m okay, it’s just..”, he left a pause. “What?” “James and Ollie.” “Oh.” “Yes.”

There was no explanation needed, no details, a couple of ellipses enough to make the other know everything they needed to. The result of eight years of dating your soulmate.

“I don’t know what to _do_ , Harry, fuck!”

“Are you 100% sure they’re dating?” Louis looked back into the room he had just left, the two boys on the couch cuddled together, Sam on his phone next to them. Hoping they wouldn’t hear his muffled phone conversation, he moved further into the hallway.

“Well, I don’t know if they’re _dating_ , but they definitely have something going on.” Silence from the other side of the line, then a little “Hm.”

“They’re exactly like us back then, H, they don’t even care about the cameras, and hell, they shouldn’t, but I feel like I should protect them and I feel so guilty for agreeing to have them put together, and I mean as a band they’re amazing, right? But I don’t want them to have to go through the s-“

“Lou”, Harry said, effectively interrupting Louis’ rambling. “Yes?”, he replied, rubbing his temple with the hand not occupied by holding a phone.

“Please calm down.” Harry’s voice, composed as ever, already helped with doing just that. “Wait until you get home, love. There’s too many ears around you right now. We can figure this out, and we will, but right now, I want you to spend the rest of the day not stressing. It doesn’t bring us any closer to a result and is definitely not good for you.”

Louis sighed. Harry was so right. What had he done to deserve this man? “I love you.”, he said, smile slowly making its way onto his face. “I love you too”, Harry replied.

And Louis managed the remaining day relatively well, even managing not to freak out when James grabbed Ollie’s butt, making him screech while Simon was in the _same room._

That evening, Harry and Louis sat down together on the couch in their living room, empty dinner plates ignored in the kitchen, tv playing on mute in the background and the rain knocking on the windows, and they decided to make a plan.

“Imagine if they were just joking, though, and when we come up to them like _‘Hey guys, this is how you can be gay without uncle Simon getting mad’_ they’re just like _‘What the hell, we both have a girlfriend’_ ”, Harry proposed, cracking up at the idea while Louis rolled his eyes. “Well, that would be good, because that would mean we’re the idiots and everything is fine.”

Harry’s facial expression changed from a wide grin to one of empathy almost immediately. “ _Lou_ ”, he said, rubbing his boyfriend’s thigh. “You can’t blame yourself for this. It’s not your fault that this happens twice in a row. All we can really do now is be glad that you noticed so early on, because that means they already are in better conditions than we were. We had _no one_. For years.”

Louis nodded, cuddling closer to Harry, being hit by a wave of affection for him. Harry wrapped his arm around him and as Louis put his head on his shoulder, he was reminded of James and Ollie, who had been pretty much in the same pose. “They’re adorable, though. So much like us in the beginning, all touchy and cuddly. The fans will eat it up.”

“Excuse me? We’re _still_ touchy and cuddly.”, Harry said, fake pouting. “Or-have I missed something-“ He removed his arm, getting up and sitting back down further from Louis on the couch, Louis falling down on it without Harry’s support “-do you need your space?” He pointed at the door, eyes wide and full of mischief. “I can _leave_ , you know?”

Louis shook his head, not being able to hide his smile. “You’re a bloody idiot, Harry. Come here.” Harry grinned, and fell into Louis’ open arms, their mouths immediately connecting. Somewhere between couch and bedroom, their initial intention got lost in between passion, two lovers getting lost in each other despite all the years that had passed.

“Fuck, we forgot to actually make the plan”, Louis said later, as they were laying together in between their bedsheets, hair still damp and bodies exhausted from their previous activity.

Harry shrugged. “I think we have time. It’s okay. Just keep an eye on them and Simon for now.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, emil here!!   
> thanks a lot for reading, kudos and comments are always appreciated. i'll try publishing the next chapter as soon as possible.   
> come talk to me on twitter: jaevlahyggelig or tumblr: avaianche  
> have a nice day xx


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